Installing vCenter 5.5 Client on Windows 2012 R2

Hi all,

I had to install vCenter Client on a Windows 2012 R2 server for a customer and what a pain it turns out to be. If you just run the installer you get an error message saying "Internal Error 28173. -2146498298" which in plain English means that it doesn't have access to the Microsoft .Net framework 3.5 as this isn't installed as standard on a windows 2012 R2 box.

So the next step is to install .Net 3.5; you go about this by adding a feature. .Net 3.5 is one of the 1st items on this list, but if you just tick it and next next next all the way through the install, the install will fail. You need the windows installation DVD to actually install this and on the last option for the install at the bottom of the screen there is an option "specify an alternative source path", click this and enter X:\sources\sxs (where X is there letter of your DVD drive). When you next through the remaining sections this will now install correctly.

Talk about making something that should be a 2 minute job completly overly complicated!